It has been more than five years since we said goodbye to the Android Market and hello to Google Play. You may have long since adjusted to the change, but there's been a version of the Android Market out there all this time. Google's putting an end to that soon, though. On June 30th 2017, the Android Market client on Android 2.1 and earlier will stop working.

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

Earlier today, while distracted by a YouTube video doing some article research, I started watching Stephen Colbert's interview at Google with Eric Schmidt. It's pretty great, and you should definitely watch the whole hour - seeing Colbert out of character (and talking about that character) on video for so long is a rarity. He's a really smart guy, and hilarious, to boot.

But during that interview, early on, I caught something that really resonated with me. Let me show you, so you can see what I'm talking about (if the time code doesn't work for you, go to 8:10 into the interview).

Earlier today, Google announced a slew of new content for the Play Store, including magazines, TV shows, and the ability to purchase movies. New content is great, but there's a problem: the new Play Store isn't yet available on devices other than the Nexus 7 and I/O Galaxy Nexus (post-Jelly Bean update).

As always, though, those crafty devils over at XDA have yanked the newest version of the Play Store from one of the aforementioned devices and made it available to the world. Simply download and install it like any normal apk to start enjoying all the hyper-fresh content you can eat.

I have heard an absolute heap of unpleasantness about the rebranding of the Android Market today. Google Play is childish. It's unprofessional. It makes Google look less than serious about its content business. The logo is weird. The name is ambiguous - play what? It reminds people of Sony products. There are endless gripes and, let's face it, there always will be when a company rebrands a popular product.

Tomorrow, countless analysts and "experts" will weigh in on whether the move was a good one, hawking over Google's stock price like a cardiograph readout. Some will say it was terrible - what was Google thinking abandoning the Android branding of their content hub?

The Android Market hit a milestone over the holiday weekend - it now contains over 400,000 apps, putting it only 100,000 apps behind Apple's App Store in terms of sheer quantity. What's even more impressive, though, is that the Market is now the largest store in the world for free apps, with a whopping 68 percent of its collection available sans price tag.

Sure, that is great for consumers, but there's no denying the dark side of free software: it generates less revenue than its paid counterpart. While 65% of the Android Market's revenue comes from apps using the freemium model, the App Store generates four times the income of the Android Market, as less than half of its available apps are free.

Tired of your lackluster music collection? El Goog is here to you help you remedy that with a huge sale on millions of tracks for just $0.49 in the Android Market. Buying single tracks not your style? No worries, most albums are going for a mere $4.99, too.

I searched through the Market for a few of my favorite artists - some popular, some obscure - just to see if I could find something going for more than $0.49 per track or $4.99 per album. What did I come up with? Nada. Everything I looked up had the same mega-low price tag.

If you've been checking out what the Android Market has to offer during it's "10 Billion" promotion, then you've probably had some difficulty in getting the apps you desire. Today, many users experienced error messages and cancelled orders as the market groaned trying to support the insane amount of traffic pouring in to snatch up some tasty 10 cent treats. Be grateful if you managed to grab the ones you wanted, because many were not so lucky. However, if you happened to receive a cancelled order, you should be seeing an email soon from good ole Google letting you know how to get the apps you wanted.

Update: Looks like YouMail has gotten to the bottom of the issue. Turns out that it was a bug in the code (a bug they were aware of, no less) and they didn't realize how severe the issue actually was. They've since corrected the issue (or are in the process of), and will be back in the Android Market shortly. For full details, check out the YouMail Blog.

YouMail, a popular (and free) visual voice mail solution, mysteriously disappeared from the Android Market today. In an email notification, the makers of YouMail were informed that the app was pulled due to a complaint from T-Mobile that the app was causing "adverse network disruption." Here's the full text of the email:

This is a notification that the application, YouMail Visual Voicemail Pro, with package ID com.youmail.android.wm has been removed from Android Market due to a violation of Android Market developer terms.

In case you haven't heard, Google has been offering 10 apps a day for just $0.10 each as part of a 10 day promotion to celebrate the 10 billionth download from the Android Market. For end users, this promotion has been fantastic, as it offers quality paid apps for next to nothing. In fact, the promotion has also been great for the developers behind the promoted apps, who have seen hugely increased exposure, skyrocketing purchases, and higher spots in the "Top Paid" list. Let's take a quick look at the current state of the Top Paid list, actually: